Browsing: Africa

Solar can power the continent’s industrial parks or light up homes whether in remote and isolated areas or in urban areas.…

In the affairs of conducting business – whether it is a single, family-owned venture or a large multinational conglomerate – capital is at the crux of the undertaking. 

In this edition, The Exchange brings to you Part 2 of a two-part series on Patient Capital and how Africa can reap the tremendous value of philanthropy in business. 

Patient Capital: An Instrument for Financing Development 

Over the last decade, a new breed of investors focused on financial returns with a strong social and environmental value proposition have emerged in Africa. These “impact investors” seek to consolidate financial returns with social impact by utilizing the apparatus of venture capital to make principal investments in private, high-growth companies/organizations that have the potential to deliver some quantifiable social or environmental benefits. 

Patient capital is an emerging investment instrument that generally falls under a broad category of vehicles for financing social change and economic …

Analysts at the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) annual roundtable noted that Africa is expected to see a subdued economic recovery in 2021 and not likely to reach 2019 growth levels until 2022.

The ATI virtual discussion hosted Uganda, Ghana and Senegal, international financial partners and risk analysts to discuss the most urgent risks and mitigation solutions.

During the virtual meeting, ATI’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, Manuel Moses emphasized the importance of partnerships that will help African economies recover from the pandemic. He also said that ATI with the support of partners like the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank, it plans to go through rapid membership expansions so as to lend more support to the most vulnerable economies.

One of the striking features of the impact of the pandemic that was revealed as a key factor that should guide the continent’s recovery is that the pandemic …

Only about 43 per cent of Africa’s population has access to electricity, a number that is half the global access rate of 87 per cent…

Every year, the L’Oréal Fondation along with UNESCO short lists 20 African women researchers for the academic excellence of their work. The young women then, enter the Sub-Saharan Africa Young Talent Awards For Women in Science.

Sourced from 16 countries, these 15 PhD students and 5 post-doctorates embody, through their backgrounds and research subjects, all the diversity and potential of tomorrow’s African science – L’Oreal.

The shortlisted 20 youth had to fight their way through a maze of nearly 330 applications. The submission were sifted through by a jury that was Chaired by Professor Nelson Torto who is the Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences.

“They all have in common the excellence of their projects and the desire to contribute to fueling innovation in Africa” he commented.

“They are joining the community of 3,400 women researchers around the world who have been supported by the For Women in …

South Africa bears a dark history of racist apartheid. Under the apartheid regime that came to an end in 1994, black people were considered inferior citizens with no rights whatsoever. The end of this callous regime brought policies meant to equalize the previously disadvantaged populace. 

Among these policies is the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy that sought to empower and integrate black people into mainstream business and the corporate world.

Is Racism alive in Corporate South Africa?

Allegations of racism have risen in spite of the existence of BEE policies. If this case is anything to go by, it would appear that certain sections of the Corporate world are using the same policy meant to protect black people against them. 

In a matter to be heard in the courts tomorrow, Tuesday 10/11/2020, tech behemoth and businessman Andile Ngcaba is taking on a technology company, Dimension Data Middle …

Potential presidential elect, Joe Biden, took to Twitter to express his administration’s desire to rejoin the Paris climate agreement as soon as he gets into office. The announcement comes on the heels of the official exit of the US from the agreement. While Trump announced his exit from the agreement years ago, the actual process took much longer.

As part of his campaign, the Democratic candidate submitted a plan involving $1.7 trillion costs to see the US becoming a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050. The US is currently the second-largest emitter of carbon in the world

What is the Paris Climate Agreement?

To keep global warming on the planet below 1.5 °C, emissions of carbon around the world have to go down to net-zero by 2050. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even a 0.5°C increase in temperature could lead to devastating effects such as droughts, …

The UK and European Union are currently in the final stages of negotiation on the terms of their ‘divorce’. The talks have been characterized by a lot of talking, sulking, walk-aways, and renegotiations. It remains to be seen if the process will end in a deal or no deal as to the terms of trade. While the bickering goes on between the ‘parents’, it raises the issue of what will become of the ‘children’ after the break-up.  

The European Union is one of the major trading partners on the African continent. Countries like South Africa are the largest beneficiaries of this trade. Trade arrangements with the UK were initiated within the auspices of the European Union. As the UK sets out on a solo mission, what will become of these deals?  

According to forecasts by the London School of Economics, if the trade deal falls through, the UK would make …

It is with no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has caused serious troubles for economies around the world, namely in the developed world. However, addressing the matter in much of the developing world is quite different, as many governments have seen national economic outputs derailed by a few years. The situation is much worse, as its knocked off many African countries from their respective economic trajectories.  

The health pandemic brought it’s friends along, as we’ve now witnessed an economic pandemic of sorts. Food crisis, housing crisis and political crisis have been all party to Covid-19, a theme that was explicit in the 2020 Bill and Melinda Gates Goal Keepers report published just last month (September 2020).  

The report raised interesting issues to examine attentively. It argued that in just 25 weeks almost 25 years of progress was regressed, particularly on the Sustainable Development Goals and in particular …

Forty-three leading global investors from Africa, Europe, the US, and the Middle East have signed up to participate virtually in the 8^th Angel Fair Africa on 5^th November 2020.

The investors are from Angel Africa List (AAL), Africa Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (AVCA), America Capital Association (ACA), Women-In-Capital (WIC), Viktoria Business Angel Network, Brightmore Capital, amongst others. Anime Partners and MSM Property Fund are supporting the investor participation.

The ten selected ventures to pitch to these investors have gone through our one-month Africa Virtual Accelerator (AVA) @ https://www.africavirtualaccelerator.com/in.php. They are, ShopMeAway led by Racine Carr; Kalpay led by Ibrahima Kane; AgroInnova led by Amos Narh; Adi&Bolga led by Abimbola Oladeji; Kladika led by Muthoni Mwangi; Gift Pesa led by Pamela Muriuki; Ejoobi led by Simangele Mphahlele; Kweza led by Ropafadzo Musvaire, Afrijob Network led by Harriet Kariuki and Curacel led by Henry Mascot. Their participation …